I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"Huh?" The more senior gatekeeper frowned. Although he was not strong enough and his physical age was no different from his actual age, he had at least lived here until he was old and gray, and had witnessed the changes in the underground world of the floating city over the years. Naturally, he had a good ability to recognize things: "Isn't Talia never taking over a male body?"

Talia's possession ability was no secret in the underworld of the floating city. After all, she was the leader of an important faction, and other forces naturally tried to study her abilities, with possession being a crucial part of that study. Although they didn't understand the principles behind Talia's possession abilities, they could at least deduce her personal preferences.

Even the gatekeeper of the Tower of Babel knew that Talia would not take over a male's body if she had a choice.

The young security guard was taken aback by his question and stammered, "Maybe she encountered some emergency this time and had no other choice?"

"...Did you really see Talia? Seriously, after you saw her, could you even remember her?"

“Well, I just heard it.” The young doorman sighed, shrugged, and reluctantly admitted he was just bragging: “Didn’t the heir of the Aphasic Tree of Life die in a gang war recently? Now Norton Cavendish is searching the entire underworld for the killer. My friend said he’s already met and spoken with Talia and ruled out the Aphasic faction. And Talia’s current situation is something Norton himself spread.”

"So that's how it is... Strange?" The gatekeeper frowned. He had also heard some rumors, but the fact that such news was circulating at this time made him, with his experience, feel something was amiss. "I have a bad feeling. Kid, is the alarm near you?"

"Yes, I'm here."

The young gatekeeper pulled out the alarm, waved it at him, and said with a grin, "Oh, old man, what are you worried about? We're guarding the Tower of Babel, how could anything happen to us?"

"...That's true."

The old man shook his head, thinking he was probably just imagining things. But just then, he suddenly saw someone walking towards him in the distance.

The entrance to the Tower of Babel is located in the underground world of the floating city, while the main body of the prison, resembling a tall tower, is inverted within the floating city, extending even deeper underground. Even so, no one usually makes a special trip to visit the entrance to the Tower of Babel.

"Who goes there?!"

The young security guard had already started questioning the suspicious person loudly, but the experienced old gatekeeper sensed something was wrong. He snatched the alarm from the young man's hand and kept his hand at a distance where he could press the alarm at any time.

The man walked quickly and soon stood in front of the two guards. He was over two meters tall, wearing a nobleman's formal attire, with some bloodstains on his chest.

He gave a very polite smile and asked, "Is this the base of the Tower of Babel?"

"That's right, what do you want to do?" The young gatekeeper frowned. "No loitering."

“I’m not an idle person,” the man said, spreading his hands. “My name is Norton Cavendish.”

The alarm blared, and the old gatekeeper immediately pressed the siren; soon, a more powerful guard would arrive. But the man who called himself Norton Cavendish remained unmoved. He took a step forward and seemingly threw a light punch.

Then, with a deafening roar that echoed throughout the entire underground world, the gates of the Tower of Babel "disappeared," and the surrounding walls became riddled with craters, as if bombarded by high-level magic. Whether it was the load-bearing metal structure or the brick and cement walls, they were all crushed into powder by sheer violence.

The two guards "disappeared" after Norton's "light" punch—but Norton found this rather strange.

Because it wasn't him who did it; his punch just now didn't have the feel to easily take down those two troublesome guards.

Norton tilted his head. He seemed to have just sensed a slight spatial fluctuation, but the two small guards were not something he would worry about for long. Soon, Norton shook his head, put the matter out of his mind, and swaggered into the entrance of the Tower of Babel.

Then came several more deafening explosions. Norton, who had entered the Tower of Babel, seemed to have started another battle. But in any case, he had already breached the Tower of Babel.

The most heavily fortified part of the floating city was thus breached.

Amber and Anne, hiding in the shadows, witnessed this scene firsthand.

Amber's eyes widened, and she barely dared to breathe. She covered the mouths of one of the guards with each hand to prevent them from making a sound, lest Norton discover that the two of them were hiding in the shadows nearby. Otherwise, her risk to rescue them would have been pointless.

Annie frowned, clenched her little fists, and muttered to herself:

"This is the guy who stole my cybernetic body, isn't it...?"

Chapter 234 I'm not targeting you personally, I'm talking about everyone here.

"This is the guy who stole my cybernetic body, isn't it...?"

The enormous rumbling inside the Tower of Babel continued, but Annie, who had crawled into the little fist, took a step and walked towards the gate of the Tower of Babel, seemingly intending to catch up!

Amber had just released the two guards and was accepting their grateful thanks when she saw Annie walking away without a care in the world. She quickly called out to her, "Annie, where are you going?"

"Is there even a question? Of course we caught up with them."

"Are you crazy!" Amber stared wide-eyed at her beautiful amber eyes, her gaze filled with "I don't understand." "That man isn't just a legend, he's at least a near-legend! Chasing after him is just suicide!"

"His name is Norton Cavendish, the cursed son of the Cavendish family, a monster born with Titan-level strength and physical abilities."

If Anne couldn't be sure who stole the prosthetic body when the Bunny Girl agent described Norton's physical characteristics, now that Anne has seen Norton's appearance with her own eyes, she almost instantly knows his identity.

Before arriving in the underground world of the floating city, Annie had done thorough preparation, including a complete intelligence gathering process. She had at least learned about the basic information of the top three leaders of all the forces in the underground world. While she didn't know everyone's background, she had at least done her homework on the key legendary and near-legendary figures.

"Titan... Titan?!"

Amber exclaimed in surprise. Annie's metaphor was much more vivid than the mere word "legend." Amber, on the other hand, was not exactly a hero. Panic was her old habit. Despite having the best escape ability in the entire floating city, she was still as cowardly as a kitten.

She shrank back, looking incredulous, and said, "Why would you chase after such a terrifying enemy?"

Because of him, I owe hundreds of thousands of gold coins!

Anne naturally didn't say the truth aloud. Instead, she gave a faint, cold smile and asked, "Do you think I wouldn't have considered any countermeasures after what happened last time?"

Amber was slightly taken aback: "Huh?"

"That vicious Talia cruelly separated Duke and me, almost causing us to be separated forever. After such an incident, I naturally began to think about how to deal with the legendary professionals who disapproved of our love."

"...Don't talk like Duke and you are Romeo and Juliet, okay? I'm Duke's official girlfriend!"

Amber complained irritably.

After realizing that the witch's game in this world was closely related to the stories he had heard in his previous life, Duke became enthusiastic about telling stories to his friends. Although his storytelling skills were terrible, his friends loved listening to him because the stories themselves were so captivating.

Amber had heard the story of Romeo and Juliet from him once, while Anne... she had heard it from Duke several times thanks to her superb eavesdropping skills.

Therefore, Anne thought Amber's analogy was excellent and automatically ignored her words about reaffirming her status as the main wife, continuing on her own: "In short, I now have a few good plans to try and confront a legend, and I'll take this opportunity to give it a shot. As a woman worthy of Duke, what's a confrontation with a legendary professional? I'm not afraid at all!"

After saying that, Anne turned her head and strode towards the gate of the Tower of Babel.

Her words clearly provoked Amber.

Amber gritted her teeth. She was the woman who deserved Duke. There was no one in the world more worthy of Duke than her!

Even if it means confronting, fighting against, and even trying to defeat legendary professionals, she wants to prove herself stronger than Annie! What? When Duke was around, she had the courage to stand on the opposite side of a legend, but now that Duke isn't around, she doesn't dare to do anything?

How could such a timid woman be worthy of Duke? I am a dignified elf princess, so what if I am just a mere legend?

I...I'm not afraid!

After a brief but intense internal struggle, Amber snapped her fingers, teleported in front of Annie, stepped through the gates of the Tower of Babel before her, and shouted, "I will not lose to you!"

"very good!"

Annie smiled.

Clearly, her provocation tactic worked.

Her journey to recover the debt (?) now has a strong safety valve.

Aside from a handful of legendary figures, there's probably no witch in the entire floating city more adept at escaping than Amber. After undergoing weight-bearing training at the Duke Space Anchor, Amber's spatial abilities have reached their pinnacle in terms of escape. Unless there's a legendary figure specifically targeting her, focusing on Amber to unleash their legendary destiny, there's simply nothing and no one that can stop her from teleporting away.

With her by her side, Annie no longer needed to worry about her life being in danger.

"...No wonder Duke likes to keep Amber by his side. How could he not use such a useful tool?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"nothing."

Unfortunately, Amber didn't hear Annie's whispered murmurs.

Then, the two of them entered the deeper underground passage of the Tower of Babel side by side, and only then did they realize that the violent rumbling that had been going on for a moment had stopped without them noticing, as if it had never happened at all.

It was as if Norton, who was walking ahead of them, had vanished into thin air.

……

Even as the explosive roar still echoed in the distance.

"I'm sorry, everyone, I made a small mistake in my calculations... Mr. Norton has already breached the Tower of Babel."

Noel clapped his hands and smiled at the meeting attendees. Several magical protective spells seemed to emanate from his body, as if he were afraid that the attendees might do something dangerous to him in a moment of excitement.

The Cavendish family is a long-established spellcasting family in the human empire, with its origins traceable back to an ancient magical empire a thousand years ago. Apart from that freak Norton, every Cavendish is an excellent spellcaster, and Noelle is no exception.

"Mr. Norton has already breached the Tower of Babel?"

Chido once again acted as the vanguard for the various factions present. As one of only two near-legendaries present, it was reasonable for him to stand up and question Noel: "Why would he do such a thing? Wasn't everyone supposed to sit down and discuss whether or not to attack the Tower of Babel, and how to breach it? Why did Mr. Norton act unilaterally?"

Noelle's ever-present polite smile seemed to have taken a turn for the worse—it had become somewhat mocking.

"Because he feels that everyone here isn't sincere and won't really reach a consensus, right?"

But it wasn't Noelle who spoke; it was Duke. His mocking smile became even more undisguised. He glanced around the conference room, then tapped the table with his finger.

"I'm not targeting anyone in particular, I'm just saying that everyone here... seems to be a selfish and despicable bunch."

Chapter 235 Flipping the Table

"I'm not targeting anyone in particular, I'm just saying that everyone here... seems to be a selfish and despicable bunch."

Wearing Talia's disguise, Duke was like a war god. His first words drew hatred from everyone present. Moreover, because his identity was "the only legendary professional in the room," his words carried such power that no one present dared to utter a word. For a full five seconds after Duke finished speaking, no one in the crowded conference room dared to say a word.

Is this what they call "borrowing the tiger's power"? So satisfying!

Duke thought to himself with a smug satisfaction.

Of course, as the one who personally defeated Talia, Duke deserved such treatment—not to mention Cecil was standing beside him.

It's important to know that no one at this war council was stronger than Cecil.

This war council, spearheaded by Norton, brought together almost all the forces in the floating city's underworld. Whether it was the ancient Dark Brotherhood or the newly emerging Black Gloves of the floating city (of course, Duke was unaware of this) and Black Fang, they all attended. However, very few of the organization's leaders actually showed up.

Based on Talia's fragmented memories, Duke quickly confirmed the identities of most of the attendees and found that Talia did not recognize most of them. Even those Talia knew were mostly the third-in-command of the organization, or simply important but not important senior cadres.

For a simple example, Dorothy, the leader of the Black Fang, didn't come, and the person representing the Black Fang was just an agent dressed as a bunny girl.

The person who came from the Neuropharm Aphans was indeed its leader, Cheto, but there aren't many organizations as straightforward as Cheto. Apart from Cheto, only one quasi-legend was present—you should know that the number of quasi-legends in the underworld combined could probably reach double digits!

The only truly respected figure would probably be the president of the Ancient Magic Empire Research Association. He's over a thousand years old and practically semi-retired. He's known Norton and the mute members of the Tree of Life for a long time, and his attendance is solely out of respect for Norton. Even he is no longer a figure of real power.

With this kind of attendance and performance, you think the forces of the underworld would unite to attack the Tower of Babel? Who would believe that?

Do you believe it? I certainly don't.

It seems they're all hoping to let other factions fight their way through while they reap the benefits, ultimately unifying the entire underworld. Norton probably saw through the nature of these faction leaders, so he didn't even attend the war meeting he was organizing, and charged into Babel Tower alone.

Of course, Duke didn't approve of his headstrong behavior either. But what did Norton's life or death have to do with them? If Megan hadn't heard that he was staying in the Tower of Babel, Duke wouldn't have wanted to get involved in this mess at all—he was busy destroying the underworld order with Lightbear.

"Ms. Talia, what do you mean by this?"

Another near-legendary witch stood up. She too wore a witch's hat, and was both a member of the floating city witches and a member of the Silent Ones' Heart Faction. The Heart Faction was probably one of the forces most concerned about this kind of operation. Their leader, Bugatti, had just been imprisoned in the Tower of Babel and was still waiting for their rescue, so they sincerely invited a near-legendary witch to participate in the war council.